One of the twentieth century’s greatest achievements for solo piano, this vast cycle of twenty meditations unites the sacred and the human. Four years after Messiaen was released from German war camp Stalag VIII-A, where he wrote Quartet for the End of Time while in captivity, Messiaen composed the Vingt Regards in Paris in 1944, near the end of WWII, as the city was being liberated from the German occupation.

Originally intended to be a set of twelve short piano pieces to accompany Maurice Toesca's poetry on the Nativity in a radio production, the final work grew to be a cycle of deeply spiritual devotion and inspiration.   There are four main themes—the theme of God, theme of the Star and the Cross, the theme of Chords, and the theme of Mystical Love—but it also contains birdsongs, Indian and non-retrogradable rhythms, neumes, synesthesia, and numerology.  It encompasses an enormous range of expressions, from tenderness to thunderous power, from mystical to the transcendental and glorious. 

My engagement with this work is deeply personal and historically rooted. Yvonne Loriod,  who is the dedicatee of this work and Messiaen's foremost interpreter and muse, performed the world premiere of the Vingt Regards in 1945 at Salle Gaveau.  She invited me to study with her as part of my Fulbright scholarship upon hearing my recordings.  Her generous encouragements, detailed teaching, and deep insights into his creative, musical and spiritual world shaped my artistic formation. My research on Messiaen also examined his harmonic colors, synesthetic imagery, rhythmic structures, poetry, and use of birdsong and Hindu tala cycles—elements that embody his universal vision of music as deeply spiritual, radiant, and transcendental. 

Performing and recording Vingt Regards is a natural continuation of this lineage. Beyond its artistic and spiritual resonance, this project will contribute to cultural preservation and education—bringing Messiaen’s message of faith, wonder, and renewal to a broader public, as a bridge between tradition and modernity, devotion and artistry, intellect and spirituality, and serve as a tribute to Yvonne Loriod and Olivier Messiaen - one of the greatest 20th century composers who influenced generations of musicians and composers worldwide.

https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/messiaen-vingt-regards-sur-l-enfant-jesus